Well last night was a tough one. The Pittsburgh Pirates began a very important series with the first place St. Louis Cardinals, entering the game 5 games back. The Bucs got off to a 3-1 lead, but St. Louis came back with 3 runs in the bottom of the 5th, taking a 4-3 lead that would hold for the rest of the night. Here is a recap of how the scoring went down, as well as a few ''awards '' for the evening.
The Bucs got off to a fast start. In the top of the first, Jung-Ho Kang doubled home Starling Marte for to give the Bucs a 1-0 lead. The bad news about this play was that Aramis Rameirz was on first base, and did not score on a ball which any other position player on the team likely would have scored on, preventing Pittsburgh from adding on in the first. Nonetheless, the Bucs had the lead and it was up to Jeff Locke to keep that lead intact. Locke was not able to do this, as the Cards tied it up in the bottom half when Jason Heyward grounded into a fielders choice, scoring Kolton Wong.
Pittsburgh retook the lead in the top of the 3rd when Ramirez singled home Gregory Polanco, giving the Bucs a 2-1 lead. Pedro Alvarez would give the Bucs an insurance run in the 4th by taking Carlos Martinez deep to dead center field for his 16th homer of the season, making it 3-1. The top of the 5th looked promising, as Polanco and Marte both singled to start the season . But Andrew McCutchen hit into a double play and Aramis Rameirz flew out to end the threat. The bottom of the 5th is when things fell apart. After Kolton Wong and Johnny Peralta both walked to start the inning, Jason Heyward singled to right, scoring Wong. After a groundout by Randall Grichuk moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd, Yadier Molina brought home Wong with a sac fly to tie the game. Heyward would come home one batter later on a single by Steven Piscotty, giving St. Louis a 4-3 lead that would hold for the rest of the game.
Carlos Martinez was dominant on the mound from here on out, shutting down the Bucco bats for the next 3 innings before making way for Trevor Rosenthal to shut the door for his 34th save in the 9th inning. Jeff Locke took the loss, going 5 innings and allowing 4 earned runs on 7 hits while walking 3 in another underwhelming performance, falling to 6-7 on the year. After a shaky first 2 innings, Carlos Martinez settled down for the Redbirds, finishing with 3 earned runs while allowing 9 hits, striking out 8 and walking none over 8 innings of work, getting the win and improving to 12-4 on the year.
Now that I have written the game recap, I will now give out my ''awards'' for the game. Let's get into it.
Game MVP: Carlos Martinez
This was a tough one to give out, as Martinez, Kolton Wong and Steven Piscotty all played key roles in the Cardinals victory. But I am giving the game MVP Award to Carlos Martinez because of how well he kept himself together. Martinez worked himself into trouble on multiple occasions, none more important than getting Andrew McCutchen to ground into a key double play after allowing back to back hits to start the 5th inning. From the 5th inning onward, Martinez was fantastic, allowing no runs and striking out 3 batters, not allowing the Bucs to get back in the game. Martinez went 8 innings, which could pay dividends in the series, as the Cards bullpen was spared for the night aside from Rosenthal, saving some key arms possibly for the rest of the series. Martinez didn't exactly pitch a gem, but he allowed his team to win by bailing himself as well as his teammates out of some potentially dangerous situations.
Goats of the Game: Jeff Locke and Andrew McCutchen
I'm giving this dubious award to two players as opposed to one because I didn't want to choose between them. Both Locke and McCutchen were not at their best on Tuesday. Locke was playing with fire through the first 4 innings, just barley managing to escape without getting burned too badly. But it all caught up with him in the 5th, when he allowed 3 runs, turning a 2 run lead into a 1 run deficit. Locke's ERA is now an unimpressive 4.43, and Bucs fans are not pleased with the way he has been performing. McCutchen was unimpressive as well, going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts, both of which were with men in scoring position and he was luckily bailed out by Jung-Ho Kang and Aramis Ramirez, who both would drive in runs in the innings where Cutch failed to get the job done. The main reason that McCutchen shares this honor is for his at bat in the 5th inning, where with men on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, the Bucs up 3-1 and a chance to break the game open, #22 hit into a double play, killing the momentum. I believe that the Bucs could have had a big inning if McCutchen drove in a run or at least moved the runners over, but he did not do either and the Cards took advantage with 3 runs in the 5th. I believe McCtuchen's at bat turned the game around, and for that reason I think it was the most important play of the night.
The Bucs are now 65-45, and fall to 6 games back in the NL Central. With the Cubs defeating the Brewers, Pittsburgh now holds a 3 game lead over Chicago for the 1st wildcard spot. Gerrit Cole will take on Michael Wacha in what should be a great pitchers match-up. All the Bucs can do is move forward and forget about last nights game.
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